" The only time you should look down at someone is when you are helping them up."
The above quote personally acts as an eye-opener to the author. Personally, the Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) like UNIVERSITI SELANGOR (UNISEL) has to proactively collaborate with the school management, mainly in sharing ideas, knowledge, skills, and expertise. As everyone is aware, most government-based schools are highly dependent on the government fund for any enhancement and improvement of any aspects of the school operation. The aforementioned issue could be minimized if a strong hinge between IHL and schools could be invigorated. One of the obvious and key enhancements that is been evoked by many parties is on making a building greener and more energy-efficient. According to statistics, in 2010, buildings were responsible for emitting 19% of all energy-related greenhouse gases, 32% of the world's total final energy use, and 55% of the world's power demand [1,2]. Green building, which attempts to create an environmentally sustainable building in terms of design, construction, and maintenance, is one potential remedy for this [3,4]. In line with the need, Malaysia is one of the countries that is continuously promoting and encouraging green and sustainable building development. This involved new building development as well as effective retrofit initiatives to the existing building. From the survey, schools and educational buildings in Malaysia are among the commercial building that contributed to high energy consumption. Hence, it is crucial for the experts from the IHL in Malaysia, who are mainly academicians to work hand in hand with the IHL operation as well as guiding the school management team in materializing this need. The main aim is to ensure that the retrofit exercise is carried out diligently and cost-effectively.
One of the academic staff from the Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Life Sciences, Puan Siti Birkha Mohd Ali has seen the importance of assisting the school management in working diligently on retrofitting their building towards more energy-efficient, which later provides numerous benefits to the school operation such as reduction of the electricity bill, creating comfortable and conducive spaces and creating high awareness among students and teacher on energy-efficient building operation and energy saving techniques. She then approached the management of Sekolah Menengah Islam dan Maahad Tahfiz Al-Quran Hira’ (SMITQH) in Jeram, Kuala Selangor for this matter. This collaboration involves assisting the school management in preparing the proposal to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). The aim is to replace the existing fluorescent lamp in several building blocks with the Light Emitting Diode (LED) type. The application had successfully grasped TNB's attention and their representative visited the SMITQH’s management in April 2022 and agreed to provide a fund that amounted to RM 10,000 for the LED project. Alongside, Puan Siti Birkha has been appointed as the facilitator for the STEM and Kelab Pencinta Alam at SMITQH mainly to share her knowledge and skills in Building Energy Management (BEM) to the teachers and students. An initial meet-up was scheduled on 30th June 2022 to gear up the Advisors and Committee members of these two clubs on the implementation of the LED replacement project. The project is aimed to be accomplished by end of 2022.
Author:
Siti Birkha Mohd Ali, Senior Lecturer, FELS, UNISEL
References:
1. IEA. Energy Technology Perspective 2017; IEA: Paris, France, 2018;
p. 441.
2. Abanda, F.H.; Byers, L. An investigation of the impact of building
orientation on energy consumption in a domestic building using emerging BIM
(Building Information Modelling). Energy 2016, 97, 517–527.
3. Jagarajan, R.; Asmoni, M.N.A.M.; Mohammed, A.H.; Jaafar, M.N.; Mei,
J.L.Y.; Baba, M. Green retrofitting–A review of current status, implementations
and challenges. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2017, 67, 1360–1368.
4. Gumbarevi ́c, S.; Dunovi ́c, I.B.; Milovanovi
́c, B.; Gaši, M. Method for Building Information Modeling Supported Project
Control of Nearly Zero-Energy Building Delivery. Energies 2020, 13, 5519.
Figure 1: Appointment letter from SMITQH as the
facilitator of STEM and Kelab Pencinta Alam.
Figure 2: The sharing on 30th June 2022 at SMITQH
Figure 3: A group photo with the Advisors and Committee members of STEM and Kelab Pencinta Alam
Figure 4: One of the rooms involved in the LED replacement project in SMITQH
Figure 5: The operation team meeting at SMITQH
Figure 6: Discussion with TNB representative at SMITQH